Robotic Nation Evidence

"In our engineering panel, one of the judges – as he was examining the robot – said this robot, with a few tweaks, could be a commercial quality machine," says Higden, who plans to study electrical engineering.

"That made us feel pretty good."

More evidence of the commoditization of robotics: University and High School students creating devices that differ only trivially from commercial products.

Presumably at least some of those students will realize that they can make a living from this "hobby."